My Emotional Birth Story


Hmm, it took me 10 months to finally have the courage/strength to share my birth story but I have decided to share because a lot of articles, blogs and Instagram posts were my strength during the most difficult part of my preggy journey and I know that one day this post might also help somebody, somewhere🤷‍♀️. Anywayz😉, without much ado, let's delve right into it👇👇👇

Pregnancy they say is magical and you never know what to expect. In my own case, I had a very good pregnancy journey in my first and second trimester. I didn't vommit, I was eating well, taking good pictures. In short, I was in the #SlayQueenGang. Of course I was constantly tired and always lost my breathe but all these symptoms were still manageable because we were really excited to be Parents, so all those symptoms didn't really bother me or tell on me that much. 

  
#SlayQueenGang😜
However, the third trimester came and everything just changed. My third trimester was the WORST ever. I mean I got to a point where I almost lost it. What then really happened? (Grab a popcorn, pop a cola and keep on reading to get the full gist 🤘). If you check my post here, I mentioned that in Sweden, you only visit your midwife once in a month for antenatal. I think towards the later part of your pregnancy, the checkups will become frequent because your midwife wants to keep an eye on you and your baby. For me, like i said everything was going on well until my legs started swelling. It was just a normal preggy swell at first according to my midwife because I complained to her when the swelling started. Unfortunately, at week 33 when I went for my monthly checkup, sadly the whole story changed😭

Yes these are my swollen feet. It was so painful, ugly and I could barely wear shoes😩
So, on that fateful day (July 4, 2017), I went in for my monthly checkup. Normally, my midwife checks my blood pressure, the baby's heartbeat and everything is usually fine but when the midwife checked my blood pressure on this day, it was really high. She started asking me funny/scary questions like "how are you feeling?", "do you feel dizzy?", "do you have migraine?" etc then she went on to tell me to get some urine in a cup (#TMI) because she needed to check if there was protein in my urine. Lo and behold, she found protein in my urine😢. She started to panic and told me I needed to be referred to the University hospital (universitetssjukhuset) immediately. I was scared, I also started panicking, I was dumbfounded, I was so worried. In short, I was just not me because I didn't know what was happening coupled with the fact that I wasn't even feeling sick except for the swollen legs, so I was shocked. I cannot really write the whole experience down because it was just way too much. That moment was one of the most difficult, challenging and emotional period of my entire life😓;

1) We were first time parents
2) We live very far away from our family members
3) We didn't even know what to expect and lots more.

To cut the long story short, I was admitted in the hospital and so many devastating news started coming in afterwards from "oh your baby has stopped growing", "your body is retaining fluid and you are adding too much weight at short intervals", "your blood pressure level is really high", "your amniotic fluid is very low", "you will be bedridden till you give birth", "we have to remove the baby", "you have symptoms of preeclampsia", "your baby might be referred to another hospital after removing her" and lots more. I cannot even start mentioning all the devastating news we were getting daily. It was TOUGH. I was heartbroken, I didn't even know what to do, where to run to or who to call.


The doctors and midwives kept monitoring me and giving me drugs to lower the BP. Some days it gets really good, while some days, everything goes back to the beginning. I cannot even tell you the amount of blood samples that were taken from me, the amount of tests I did. It was TOUGH. I was 33 weeks gone at this time so I still had roughly between 5 to 7 weeks before giving birth. The doctors told us that the baby can't stay till 40 weeks but they want to try to push things to 37/38 weeks which is like full term because they wanted her lungs to be fully developed. However everyday was not the same and worse still my baby wasn't growing any longer, she was just surviving. She was measured to be 33% smaller than her age. I was so SAD and heartbroken. I cried and cried and cried almost everyday because I was really scared/heartbroken and of course exhausted😢

My heartbroken face😢
The doctors and midwives tried their best I must say. Me and my baby were monitored closely everyday from 33 weeks till 36 weeks (the scariest and worst 3 weeks of my whole life).  At 36 weeks , I went for an ultrasound, blood tests, etc but results showed that the situation wasn't any better but thank God it wasn't worse. I was praying/hoping I could push to 38 weeks on the dot but the doctors said that the baby would grow faster outside than inside as my right uterine wasn't bumping blood well as it should or something funny🤦‍♀️. I was told to start preparing for induction. I was given some time to go home to pack my hospital bag. So, in good faith myself and my ever supportive husband went home and packed our load and headed back to the hospital. At 37 weeks, I was induced but unfortunately my baby was reacting to oxytocin and her heartbeat was dropping rapidly, not forgetting that she was even very small. The doctors/midwives kept trying so that I could have a VD but unfortunately my labour wasn't improving (*big sigh*) 


Here my baby was reacting to oxytocin and I had to breathe in some oxygen to save the situation😢
I was in serious pain for like 18 to 20 hours. Finally, around 8pm they checked me again but the doctor/midwife saw that there was still no improvement. At this time, my water had already been broken so I was told I needed to be rushed to the theatre for an emergency caesarian section because my baby needed to be out that day (25th of July, 2017). I cried, I was so down, I didn't even expect/plan for it. In my mind, I was like "you mean after all the pain I have been going through for the past 20hours,  I still have to do a CS, c'mon". At that point I was totally done with the whole pregnancy journey. I was really SAD💔

I was finally wheeled to the theatre around 9:30pm. The caesarian section started at 10pm and at exactly 10:05pm on Tuesday night, my baby was brought out. The rest they say was meant to be history but for us because she was small and came few weeks earlier, we had to spend 14 days in the NICU so that she can be monitored well. They also wanted to be sure that she didn't have any breathing difficulty or any ailment which is common to preemie babies. Thanks to God, she didn't have any any ailment or breathing difficulty. She was just PERFECT👌

Omoteniola Grace Ibidunmoye😍
At the end of the day, my baby was perfectly fine. I had to heal up fast for her even though I was still going through a lot of pains from my CS. Finally, on the 10th of August we were discharged from the hospital. My blood pressure was back to normal, my legs were reducing daily and my baby had grown A LOT in two weeks.

The day we were finally discharged from the hospital💃
The last phase of my pregnancy was definitely one of the most challenging periods of my life. I didn't know I was this strong. I mean, I was stretched above and beyond😢. Oh and to my darling husband, what do I even say. This man had to take over taking care of the house, cooking daily for me (breakfast, lunch and dinner), washing, even bathing me sometimes. There were some difficult days where I would be so angry, I would throw tantrums here and there but he kept his cool all through. He proved to me over and beyond that he would do anything just to make me happy. He truly deserves some accolades 👊

These two😍
I can't even explain how stressed we both were afterwards but everyday got better. Teni's cuddles, smiles and growth also made us stronger. We went through this period successfully and we learnt a lot of lessons afterwards.

My top 5 lessons were:
  • You never know what to expect in your pregnancy. For me everything was fine until my last trimester.

  • Find support groups or articles. For me, I saw a lot of Instagram pages that inspired me. I saw people who had gone through exactly what I went through or even worse. That alone gave me hope and strength that I am not alone.

  • Be optimistic - We didn't know what to expect, even the doctors told us that everyday is different so we should take one day at a time. Truly, everyday was different but we kept encouraging each other and stayed strong for our baby. It was tough but being optimistic helped a lot.

  • Don't blame anyone for whatever happens to you in life. Just accept it, deal with it and move on. At first, I was so sad, I thought I did something wrong, or ate something that I wasn't meant to eat but at the end of the day, I saw that a lot of people go through even worse things than I went through in my pregnancy. The fact that you see pictures on social media doesn't mean there were no wars that were fought behind the scene. Some just choose either to share or not. However, whatever situation you find yourself in life, just embrace it and hope for the best.

  • The bible says "Pray without ceasing" - 1 Thessalonians 5:17. When everything gets tough and you don't know what to do, talk to God. Just let it out to him. He comes through even when we don't have families or friends around us. He is that one family and friend that would never forsake you. Trust me, God came through for me and my husband and we are totally grateful.

My little Teni of yesterday clocks the big 1 in few months💃. Hmmmm, what can I say, I am just grateful for everything 🙏



I hope you had a good time reading this as I had a good time writing down a summarised version of my birth story. Until next time...💋



4 comments

  1. Hey Sister. Reading this got me emotional, Thank God for the gift of life and for the gift of Teniola. So much to learn from the write up. God bless you and Mr Ibidun 💕

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    Replies
    1. Thank you my darling. Life is just what it is, nobody gets it all planned out. I am just thankful for the strength to bear it all. Xoxo

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  2. Wow! Sorry you had to go through all that. Thank God for all. I got really emotional reading this. Happy Birthday to her once again.

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